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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / View the engine number

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Posted By Discussion Topic: View the engine number     DEAN333 11-01-2012 @ 8:32 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 258 Joined: May 2012 What is the easiest way to view the engine number stamped on the trans case of my 36 Fordor? From underneath with a mirror? Thru an opening in the floor? Thanks Guys TIM CARLIG supereal 11-01-2012 @ 10:22 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 You will have to remove the floor board to see the top of the transmission clutch housing where the number is usually stamped. It is unlikely that the number, if it is there, will mean much, as the transmission is seldom original to the car. There is no "engine number", as such, and would be the same as the number stamped on the frame, which is just a production serial number. CharlieStephens 11-01-2012 @ 11:26 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 893 Joined: Oct 2009 It is also unlikely that the DMV would want to use this number to register the car for the reasons supereal mentioned. The car is registered with the frame number stamped into the top of the left frame rail usually near the steering box. Did you have another reason to want to view the number? Charlie Stephens This message was edited by CharlieStephens on 11-1-12 @ 11:26 AM DEAN333 11-01-2012 @ 5:13 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 258 Joined: May 2012 Yes Charlie. I was told this was a "numbers matching," "original" car when I picked it up in June. I have since discovered it has a 41 intake manifold and distributor as well as a two brush generator with regulator. I finally found the correct intake manifold at a swap meet last week and also purchased the correct distributor. Just curious if the number stamped on the trans matches the number on the frame. TIM CARLIG CharlieStephens 11-01-2012 @ 5:38 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 893 Joined: Oct 2009 Tim, I wonder if they thought "numbers matching" meant the numbers matched the registration paperwork? I think you are about to find out. If it was me and I didn't intend to show the car I would leave the 2 brush generator on there with a dummy cut on top of it at least until it gave me a problem. It would be nice to have the correct generator on the shelf in case you or the next person to own the car wants it. Charlie Stephens This message was edited by CharlieStephens on 11-1-12 @ 5:52 PM ford38v8 11-01-2012 @ 7:03 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 2763 Joined: Oct 2009 Dean, Numbers matching is really a term that applies more to muscle cars, and not early Fords. The only numbers to matc h in your car is the frame and transmission, and of course the title, as Charlie mentioned. Many if not most of us have bought cars having many issues like yours, and have enjoyed the slow but steady fun of finding the right stuff at swap meets. To assist you in know what to look for, I'd strongly suggest this mandatory reading: Get the '35 - '36 Ford Book, available from many sources, as well as right here on the EFV8CA website: https://www.earlyfordv8.org/store-product-item.cfm?id=18&pid=2 Alan drkbp 11-01-2012 @ 7:29 PM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 180 Joined: Aug 2010 Tim, As I recall, the number appears several times down the left rail but the only one easy (because of the body) to see is near the sector. I found that my numbers matched after I had rebuilt the wrong transmission. Took it out and put the original in. Not a big thing but kept it all together. It just happened that the car and trans numbers matched my title. I did call Ford in Detroit in the middle 70's. I believe the telephone number was in the V8 club magazine. The archive record fellow told me to just give him the number because he wanted to tell me what the body style was. I did and he told me it was a Cabriolet and was built in a group with 17 other cabriolets and 18 roadsters. He said he marked me as existing. Has anyone else called Ford or do they still do that? He knew what he was talking about. I have front firewall supports that are not standard for an open car and he knew it. Just trivia but interesting none the less. Ken in Texas DEAN333 11-01-2012 @ 7:34 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 258 Joined: May 2012 Alan, I do have the 35-36 book. Great source of info as you know. TIM CARLIG CharlieStephens 11-01-2012 @ 8:09 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 893 Joined: Oct 2009 Quote: Tim, As I recall, the number appears several times down the left rail but the only one easy (because of the body) to see is near the sector. I found that my numbers matched after I had rebuilt the wrong transmission. Took it out and put the original in. Not a big thing but kept it all together. It just happened that the car and trans numbers matched my title. I did call Ford in Detroit in the middle 70's. I believe the telephone number was in the V8 club magazine. The archive record fellow told me to just give him the number because he wanted to tell me what the body style was. I did and he told me it was a Cabriolet and was built in a group with 17 other cabriolets and 18 roadsters. He said he marked me as existing. Has anyone else called Ford or do they still do that? He knew what he was talking about. I have front firewall supports that are not standard for an open car and he knew it. Just trivia but interesting none the less. Ken in Texas ************************************************************************************************************** Ken, I sure wish you had kept the number you called! As far as I know the engines were all assembled along with the transmission, inspected and serial numbered. The assemblies were then shipped without recording the number to the various vehicle assembly plants. The body number on the firewall might have given more information. Charlie Stephens This message was edited by CharlieStephens on 11-1-12 @ 8:12 PM drkbp 11-02-2012 @ 6:42 AM reply profile send p.m. New Member Posts: 180 Joined: Aug 2010 Charlie, Not to hijack the thread.... I was a member of the V8 club in the 70's and must have picked up the contact number from one of the articles in the magazine. I don't throw anything away so I probably have the mags somewhere but that is more than 35 years ago. The thing that impressed me about that contact was that he had access to records that gave him body style from the serial number. At the time, it just confirmed to me that my car was always a car and not bits and pieces put together. The Benson Ford archives may very well still have the record. Ford kept a record from T days and earlier of the serial number body style and so on. For instance, I have a Model T that was built on Thursday, July 17, 1913. The transmission was assembled on the previous Friday July 11th. Pontiac made the body and Dodge Brothers made all the running gear. In 1925, Ford began to take the number on the engine assembly (block) and hand stamp the frame on the assembly line. Stamped on the frame rail just like the V8. The engine and transmissions were a unit before they reached assembly line to be made into a car since the beginning. Probaly pictures of the V8 line show that clearly also. Ford had numbered the block on the engine assembly unit all through Model T and A. So the change came with B18. They apparently decided to number the transmission housing instead of the block. The frame number was to match the transmission number, not the other way around. I say that because Ford had done it that way for thirty years before V8. There was a problem Ford had for years and it was what happens when a block is replaced? Ford furnished unnumbered blocks and the dealer had instructions to renumber with the old number. Blank blocks are still around. The trans could be replaced too so why that? I don't know. Anyway, the question he had for me on that call years ago was what front firewall supports did I have on my car. Short and he knew it and why! So as I often say, It wasn't a pigment of my imagination! <grin> He had the record. Ken in Texas

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